Database marketing projects are doomed if technical glitches are not caught early, if analytical gaps exist and if projects are not guided by seasoned marketers, according to research released yesterday by Eric Schmitt, an analyst at Forrester Research in Boston.
In the report, “The Value of Database Marketing Service Providers,” Schmitt said that though some companies such as CVS and Lands' End have built and managed world-class marketing programs on their own by using in-house skills and commercial software, many organizations turn to database marketing service providers to reduce risk, plug skills gaps and craft strategy.
Schmitt said that firms looking to hire such a service provider must sift through a confusing vendor landscape. To help expedite this process, Forrester plans to publish an evaluation of 10 leading database marketing service vendors.
The vendors are segmented into three camps: purists, which include Epsilon, CSC Advanced Database Solutions, Merkle and BeNow; diversified service vendors, which include Acxiom, Experian, Fair, Issac & Co. and Harte-Hanks; and agency subsidiaries, which include KnowledgeBase Marketing and Rapp Collins Worldwide.
